The CHS Soccer teams celebrates with the Coffee Cup trophy

Breyer Taylor scored twice, Paco Barrera had a spectacular goal and David Fernandez netted the game winner as the Coffee County soccer team defeated Tullahoma 4 to 3 on Friday night in Tullahoma to retain the Coffee Cup. The win, which is the first for a Coffee County men’s team on the Tullahoma pitch, marks a milestone in that the Class of 2016 soccer players will have never lost to their cross county rivals. Friday’s win is the 2nd in a row over Tullahoma after a pair of draws in 2013 and 2014. A large contingent of Red Raider fans showed up to cheer on Coffee County and actually outnumbered the Tullahoma fans in attendance. They were treated to an outstanding match whose outcome was not decided until Breyer Taylor pushed a pass forward in the final 10 seconds to allow the clock to run out.

Breyer Taylor

Taylor got the lone goal for Coffee County in the 1st half off a direct kick just outside the 18 yard box in the 13th minute. Cason Conner of Tullahoma knotted the score in the 25th minute to send the game to the half even at 1. In the 2nd half, Tullahoma was awarded a penalty kick in the 43rd minute, only to see Paco Barrera take the ensuring kick-off up the middle of the field to tie the score at 2 a mere 6 seconds later. Taylor notched his second goal at the 47 minute mark only to see Tullahoma’s Conner tie it again in the 59th minute. That goal seemed to awaken some urgency in Coffee County as they turned on the offensive pressure only to see David Fernandez slide across the goal mouth and flick a rebound past the keeper in the 63rd minute. John Parigger was solid in goal as he turned away 6 of 9 Tullahoma shots on frame, but he also displayed great decision making in the box to thwart a handful of Wildcat scoring opportunities. After the game, Taylor was named the most outstanding player for Coffee County and Conner was tabbed for the Wildcats in an awards ceremony presented by First Vision Bank. The win moves the Raiders into a first place tie in the district with Shelbyville. Coffee County will take on Shelbyville on Tuesday at 7 PM in a match to be held at Shelbyville.

Deandre Wakefield

The Coffee County Central High School baseball team finished an impressive 3 and 0 performance in pool play on Saturday morning at the Mountain Valley Tournament with a 13 to 2 waxing of Lookout Valley. After spotting Lookout Valley a 1st inning run, Grant Sadler settled down to pitch Coffee County to the win. Deandre Wakefield capped off an impressive tournament performance as he was 2 for 4 at the plate with a grand slam home run in Coffee County’s 10 run 4th inning. Noah Anderson was 1 for 1 with a pair of walks and a 2 RBI double. Bradley King also finished with a single and 2 runs batted in for Coffee County who turned down a chance to play in Sunday’s finals due to a busy week of action. Coffee County hosts McCallie on Monday night in the 1st game of a 2 game series. First pitch is scheduled for 5 PM and Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast of that game beginning with the pregame show at 4:50.

Tori Bell(Photo by John St Clair – johnstclairphoto.com)

Tori Bell had a 2 run homerun to highlight 3 run 3rd inning as the Coffee County Lady softball team defeated Ezell-Harding on Friday night 5 to 4. Coffee County outhit Ezell-Harding 9 hits to 4 but could never put away the Eagles as the home standing squad in the 7 inning nail biter. Ashlynn Morton, Rhianna Roberson and Lauren Tomberlin all had 2 hits. Tomberlin finished with a double and 2 RBI and Morton scored 2 runs. Bell had an RBI fielder’s choice to end up with 3 RBI on the game to earn the Thunder Radio player of the game honor. Kaylee Skipper went the distance in the circle allowing only 2 unearned runs as she struck out 8. Coffee County returns to action on Monday when they travel to Lincoln County for a crucial district battle with the Lady Falcons. First pitch is set for 6:30 PM. The next home game will be Tuesday night when Franklin County visits Terry Floyd Field for a 7 PM contest.
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Teagan Perry(middle front) signs her scholarship papers on Friday. Looking on are: (Front row left to right) Frances Shank- grandmother, Glenda Perry-mom, Teagan, Troy Perry-dad, Joshua Perry-brother. Back Row – Barry Bishop-Willowbrook Pro; Lucky Knott-former assistant CHS gold coach; Spohie Vinson, Jordan Green & Savannah Quick-CHS teammates and Mike Ray-CHS head golf coach.

Teagan Perry became the 13^th Coffee County Central High School golfer in the last 8 years to sign a college scholarship on Friday afternoon as she inked with Trevecca Nazarene University.  Surrounded by family and teammates, Perry is the 2^nd local product to ink with Trevecca this year joining Brynn Craven of Warren County at the Nashville university.  “I liked the school and the campus” said Perry following the signing ceremony.  Perry, who wants to be a pre-med major said that Coach David Head impressed her as well.  “He has a lot of great programs for us and wants to help us in golf, our academics and socially.”  Perry, who was a captain on this year’s state tournament team, was an important part of a Lady Raider team which has won 3 straight district and region titles and has appeared in the last 3 state tournaments.  Coach Mike Ray was beaming with pride when asked about Teagan.  “Teagan leads by example.  You know she is going to do the right things both on and off the course.”  Ray went on the say that this accomplishment that Perry should be incredibly proud of: “Teagan has worked tirelessly for everything she has earned and this is a great achievement for a great young lady.”

Pete Weber’s Postgame Report

Pekka Rinne

Timely scoring and spectacular goaltending helped the Nashville Predators to a 2-0 series lead for the first time in franchise history. And now they’re coming home.

The Preds beat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 in Game Two of their Western Conference First Round series on Sunday night at the Honda Center to take a commanding lead away from Music City. Nashville got better throughout the night and eventually wore down the Ducks on their way to a victory.

“Everyone in this room believes that we’re capable of doing this, and I think we showed we can beat any team,” defenseman Mattias Ekholm said. “Anaheim was No. 1 in their division and have a heck of a hockey team, but the way we’re playing right now, and we have [Pekka Rinne] in net, he’s awesome every night, and we’ve just got to keep battling.”

Rinne made a number of impressive saves throughout the first period, including a point-blank robbery of Ryan Kesler in tight, as Anaheim pressed from the start of the contest. That pressure eventually paid off at 14:20 as Andrew Cogliano made it 1-0 Ducks when he scored on a breakaway.

But after the Anaheim tally, the Preds went to work, quickly catching the Ducks in the shot category before Ekholm evened the score. Colin Wilson found Ekholm, a defenseman, in the low slot, where the Swede backhanded a shot top shelf that beat Anaheim netminder John Gibson with 56 seconds remaining in the opening frame, a huge goal for the Preds before the stanza was out.

The Predators didn’t let up in the second, and it paid off. Craig Smith scored his first of the playoffs when he roofed a shot in front, thanks to a feed from Filip Forsberg from behind the cage. Later, Anaheim got into penalty trouble and gave Shea Weber one-too-many cracks at the one-timer from the left point, as the Captain ripped a shot past Gibson with the man advantage with 39 seconds to play in the second period. The tally was Weber’s first of the postseason, his 11th career playoff goal, and it gave Nashville a two-goal advantage into the second intermission.

The Ducks scored late, but Rinne and the Preds stood up to the final Anaheim push, as the Preds goaltender helped to steal another one in Orange County.

“He’s a terrific goalie,” Head Coach Peter Laviolette said of Rinne. “We always accept a little bit of responsibility back three or four months ago for not doing the right things in front of him, and now we’re playing better in front of him. But there’s always saves that need to be made, and he made some terrific ones tonight, especially early on to stay in that game. He was real sharp.”

The Preds will be back in Nashville on Tuesday night for Game Three, and while the club is certainly pleased with what has transpired thus far, they know there’s still plenty of hockey to be played.

“We know there’s a lot of work to do,” Laviolette said. “It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t finish it and follow it up. We have to keep working, keep an eye on what we’re doing here and just keep moving forward.”

In Game One, it took the Predators 35 seconds to score the opening goal of the series. In Game Two, it wasn’t the beginning of the period, but rather the end of both the first and second frames, where Nashville found timely scores.

Mattias Ekholm’s goal with 56 seconds left in the first period, and then Shea Weber’s power-play tally with 39 ticks to go in the second gave Nashville all they needed to win their second game in a row to start the series.

“It’s a huge goal,” Ekholm said of his strike. “I can’t say it enough, it doesn’t matter when it comes, but when it comes at that point, when they have that kind of pressure on us, and I thought it was good to get some energy coming in.”

The goals took the life out of the Honda Center on both occasions, not to mention the boost they provided to the visitors in the locker room at the intermissions.

“The first period was big; you go into the room 1-1, and that was really big, but I do think we started to take the first period back,” Laviolette said. “We knew that they were going to come with some emotion, especially early on, and they did. Our guys did our best to hold up to that, and until we could start to play our game a little bit, I thought we did as the game went on, but those goals at the end of the period, especially the first one, they send you into the locker room in the right direction and the right frame of mind.”

At this time of year, the goals are crucial, no matter when they come. Nashville’s efforts when the time crunch was on proved to be particularly effective on this night, just one more positive to take away as the series moves along.

“Winning games isn’t easy,” Laviolette said. “It’s playoff hockey. Anaheim is a really good team. They played well tonight. I thought our guys played hard as well, and we were able to walk away with a couple of wins. We have to put it behind us and move forward, see if there’s things we can get better at out here.”

Captain Shea Weber skated in his 47th career playoff game, all with the Preds, to tie David Legwand for the most postseason games played in franchise history. Weber is also two goals away from tying Legwand for the franchise lead in playoff goals; the captain currently has 11 postseason markers.

The series now shifts to Nashville, beginning on Tuesday night with Game Three from Bridgestone Arena (at 8:30 p.m. CT). Game Four comes Thursday in Music City.  Thunder Radio will bring you that broadcast, following Coffee County softball Tuesday night, on the Fifth Third Bank/Nashville Predators Radio Network.

The Braves watched a five-run lead disappear, but still managed to complete their three-game sweep of the Marlins in extra innings. Mallex Smith’s two-out, RBI single to center off Edwin Jackson proved the difference, as Atlanta prevailed 6-5 in 10 innings at Marlins Park.

Ichiro Suzuki’s two-out, RBI single in the ninth inning off Jason Grilli pulled the Marlins even, but with two outs in the 10th, the Braves countered and went ahead on Smith’s single to center. Miami has now dropped four straight and fell to 0-5 at home.
After falling behind by five runs in the sixth inning, the Marlins chipped back with three in the sixth, one in the seventh and eventually forced extra innings thanks to Suzuki’s single in the ninth.
Braves right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, staked to a four-run lead in the first inning, retired the first 10 he faced before Martin Prado’s single with one out in the fourth inning. The right-hander even helped his cause at the plate with an RBI single in the sixth inning, extending the lead to 5-0.
The Braves stacked their lineup with seven left-handed hitters against right-hander Jarred Cosart. They struck for four runs in the first inning off Cosart. Nick Markakis started things off with a double. Freddie Freeman had an RBI single, but the big blow was Jace Peterson’s three-run double with two outs.
Despite allowing his first three runs of the season, Chacin had a solid outing. He allowed four hits and recorded six strikeouts in a 5 1/3-innings outing and had a one-hit shutout working through five innings, before the Marlins rallied for three in the bottom of the sixth. The right-hander contributed to his cause at the plate with an RBI single in the top of the sixth that stretched the Braves’ lead to 5-0.
Things got out of control quickly for Cosart in the first inning, as the Miami right-hander faced nine batters, threw 34 pitches and allowed four runs. Cosart labored with command, walking three. In the second inning, Cosart walked two more, but he settled in and ended up giving Miami several quality innings. Cosart had a stretch where he retired 12 straight and got into the sixth inning before he exited following an RBI single by Chacin. The final line wasn’t pretty for Cosart, who allowed five runs (four earned) with six walks and four strikeouts.
The Braves gave Chacin a 4-0 lead before he threw his first pitch. Markakis continued his hot hitting during this series when he lined a leadoff double down the left-field line to spark the offense. Back-to-back walks with two outs after Freeman drove in Markakis with a single set the stage for a bases-loaded three-run double by Peterson.
After an off-day Monday, the Braves had planned to send right-hander Matt Wisler to the mound in the first of a three-game homestand against the Dodgers, but Wisler (0-1, 4.97 ERA in two starts this season) was needed out of the bullpen in the 10th inning Sunday and it’s now possible that his next start will be pushed back a day or two. Former Braves left-hander Alex Wood (1-1, 4.50) is the scheduled starter for the Dodgers.